To reduce an impact force on a driver at the time of secondary collision, there is a steering apparatus having an impact-energy absorbing mechanism which is plastically deformed during a collapse movement of a column toward a front side of a vehicle body due to an impact force at the time of secondary collision, thereby reducing an impact load at the time of the secondary collision.
In such a steering apparatus, in order to achieve predetermined impact-energy absorbing characteristics, the impact-energy absorbing characteristics are changed during a collapse movement stroke. For example, a steering apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes two impact-energy absorbing members arranged to overlap each other in the vertical direction of a vehicle body such that positions of the impact-energy absorbing members are shifted in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body, thereby shifting the timings at which the respective impact-energy absorbing members start plastic deformation during the secondary collision, and changing the impact-energy absorbing characteristics during the collapse movement stroke.
However, since the steering apparatus of Patent Document 1 uses two impact-energy absorbing members, the manufacturing cost increases. Also, since the two impact-energy absorbing members are disposed to overlap each other in the vertical direction of the vehicle body such that the positions of the impact-energy absorbing members are shifted in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body, space for accommodating the impact-energy absorbing members increases in the vertical direction of the vehicle body and in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body. Therefore, the column becomes bulky and increases in weight.